Best Cheap Cell Phone Plans

If you are on a budget and you are looking for the best cheap cell phone plans, this article is for you.

Here are the best and most affordable cell phone plans on the market right now:

1. Best overall cheap cell phone plan: Helium Mobile Zero
2. Best cheap annual plan: Good2Go Mobile 1GB
3. Best cheap monthly plan: US Mobile 2GB

Why Should You Trust Me?

I’ve been reviewing cell phone plans for over a decade. 

My YouTube channel has over 150K+ subscribers. I’ve published more than 600 videos. My videos have over 40 million views:

I got into reviewing cell phone plans when I was a student in high school. I was looking for a cheap cell phone plan for myself. I felt confused by the options and was unsure which plan to go with. 

So, I started signing up for a new plan each month and posting a review video on my YouTube channel.

Now my goal is to help 1 million people save $10 per month or more on their cell phone bill.

I hope this article helps you do exactly that.

How Can Some Cell Phone Plans Be So Much Cheaper Than Others?

When you look at some of these cell phone plans, you will probably wonder, “how can some of these plans cost so much less than others?”

It’s a great question. 

I dive into the full details in my article (appropriately titled) How Can Some Cell Phone Plans Cost So Much Less Than Others?

Here is the short version:

In the United States, there are three big carriers: AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon. 

These big carriers build and operate their own cellular networks. We call them MNOs, or Mobile Network Operators. 

Building cellular networks is expensive. So, the big carriers charge premium rates for their cell phone plans. Prices range from $60-$100 per month for a single line.

Can everyone afford these rates?

No, not at all. 

The big carriers want more customers, including those who can’t afford their expensive plans. However, they also want to protect their premium branding. So instead of offering cheaper plans directly, they lease access to their cellular networks to smaller carriers. These smaller carriers are known as MVNOs, or Mobile Virtual Network Operators. Examples include US Mobile and MobileX.

MVNOs purchase minutes, texts, and data packages from the big carriers at wholesale rates and bundle them together into more affordable plans. 

They also create their own brand identities to appeal to different market segments.

MVNOs often use additional cost-cutting strategies. For example, they may operate online-only to save on leasing building space and staffing employees. They will sometimes offer plans in bulk 12-month packages as well.

This creates a win-win-win situation. 

The MNOs protect their premium brand identity. The MVNOs create cheaper plans that target different market segments and are more affordable. And we, the consumers, get more choices for more affordable cell phone plans. 

Okay, let’s dive into the plans. 

1. Best Cheap Cell Phone Plan Overall: Helium Mobile Zero

Can you find a cheaper cell phone plan than free?

Nope!

That’s why if you want the best cheap cell phone plan, look no further than Helium Mobile Zero.

This plan costs $0 per month, taxes and fees included. For the price, you get 100 minutes, 300 texts, and 3GB of high-speed data. 

It’s a great plan for light usage. 

Why this plan wins

You cannot beat free. 

Plus, Helium’s plan has more data than rival plans that cost between $10 and $20 per month.

Pair Helium Mobile with a free Google Voice number or a TextNow number for unlimited calls and texts, too. 

How can it be free?

Great question. 

I think there are three reasons why:

1. Helium Mobile raised $360 million in funding. I’m betting they are using some of those funds to acquire new customers, even at a potential loss. 
2. Helium Mobile has lower operational costs than a traditional cell network. In addition to riding off of T-Mobile for coverage, Helium Mobile also uses its own Helium Hotspots for coverage. Helium Hotspots basically turn existing Wi-Fi connections into seamless internet access for Helium Mobile subscribers. And, spoiler alert, it turns out delivering internet access via an existing Wi-Fi connection is a whole lot cheaper than using a cell network. (There’s more to it than that, but that’s the gist).
3. Helium needs more users to make its business model work. The idea behind Helium is two fold: First, you have people deploy Helium hotspot devices. Second, you have wireless subscribers connect to the hotspots and actually USE data and reward the hotspot deployers for the usage. In order to generate network traffic for the reward mechanism to work, I’m betting Helium needs more subscribers and is willing to give away free service to make that happen.

Now, I could be mistaken on these. But those are my best guesses.

And regardless of how you feel about crypto or what you think about Helium Mobile’s idea, all you need to know is this:

It works.

I signed up. I tested it out. And I got free service. 

Three more things:

1. You need to verify your identity to sign up. This typically involves scanning your driver's license for most people. Why is this required? Likely to prevent fraud and abuse of the plan from nefarious actors. ‍
2. You need to use a little bit of data each month to keep the service active. Remember how I hypothesized that Helium needs more active users on its network for its rewards mechanism to work (or, at least to work better)? Yeah, I think that’s how come they require network usage. ‍
3. You no longer need to share your location. When this plan first launched, it required you to share anonymized location data with Helium. This was used to tell hotspot deployers which locations a lot of people visited and where to put up hotspots. Thankfully, location sharing is no longer required as of October 1st, 2025.